1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of automated unpackaging, and more particularly to a system and method for information handling system chassis bulk packaging for automated extraction of the chassis from packaging.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Often different components of an information handling system are manufactured at a variety of disparate locations and then shipped to a manufacturing location for final assembly. The packaging and assembly of components typically involves combined manual and robotic labor. For instance, less complex information handling system components, such as the housing chassis, are sometimes manufactured and bulk packaged at remote locations with less-specialized manual labor. The chassis are then shipped in the bulk packages for assembly at a location with more specialized labor and robotics that are better able to manage the complex manufacturing process of assembling electronic components in the chassis. The allocation of tasks of varying complexity to appropriate labor resources improves manufacturing efficiency and reduces costs, however, this improved efficiency may easily be lost if packaged components are not adequately adapted to integrate in the assembly process. For instance, chassis are typically wrapped in protective plastic and placed in partitioned corrugated containers for shipment to an assembly location. At the assembly location, a robotic arm equipped with a vacuum lift removes the chassis from the container for use in assembly of information handling systems.
One difficulty with the integration of component packaging and system assembly is that protective packaging material is sometimes removed along with components at the assembly location to interfere with and introduce contaminants into the assembly process. For instance, a chassis that is extracted by a robotic arm vacuum lift from a container will sometimes pull up the protective plastic wrap from within the partitioned container during the extraction. Once a protective plastic wrap is pulled from a container partition the robotic arm lift process generally fails due to interference with the robotic vision or movement of the robotic arm. In addition, removal of the plastic protective wrap increases the risk that contaminants in the container beneath the wrap will enter the assembly environment to cause damage to other more-sensitive information handling system components. One solution to the inadvertent removal of a protective plastic wrap is to glue or otherwise adhere the plastic wrap to the container to prevent the inadvertent removal. However, gluing dissimilar materials inhibits reuse or recycling of packaging material after the components are removed for assembly since the adhered packaging materials are generally infeasible to separate completely, making recycling of each individual material void.